Love & Romance, Hollywood Style [Period 4, Class 3]

[carpe_demon]

"Last week we talked about happily ever after," Drake began when the students had all settled in. "But that's not always how it ends up. People die -- but that doesn't mean their love is gone. It lives on, and sometimes it can be powerful enough to bring a soul back from the dead to protect his or her love or avenge a death or complete some sort of unfinished business related to the loved one."

He snapped his fingers and started the projector, showing scenes from the movies Ghost (including the ending) and The Crow, which was a good bit darker than the first example. "So in meta for Ghost," Drake said, "the late great Patrick Swayze gets himself shot and dies. Quicker than you can say 'Carol Anne, don't go into the light!' he runs from the afterlife and sticks around to watch Demi Moore in the shower. Then he figures out his best friend set him up and now Demi's life is in danger. Once he kills his former buddy and is sure that Demi will be safe, he is able to pass on.

"Now, meta for The Crow has a somewhat similar story, but a lot more violent," Drake went on. "Eric and Shelly are brutally killed on the eve of their wedding. One year later, Eric crawls out of his grave and hunts down the people responsible for his and Shelly's murders. When they're all dead, Shelly's spirit appears to him and leads him into the afterlife."

Drake showed a few more clips, then finished up the lecture. "One of the characters in The Crow says, 'A building gets torched. All that is left is ashes. I used to think that was true about everything: families, friends, feelings. But now I know that sometimes, if love proves real, two people who are meant to be together -- nothing can keep them apart.' Do you believe this? Do you think if something were to happen to you and your love, you could come back from the dead to try to make things right? Could you accept a happy peaceful afterlife if you knew your love was in danger?"

Comments

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Three]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

This was another one of those moments where Kennedy wondered how the hell she'd ended up in this class, and had to be amused at why she was a TA, because wow. Talk about non-areas of expertise. (Well, not the romance part. She liked to think she had that down pretty well. Drake seemed to be more hung up on the love part, though, and that-- fish out of water.) But the way Drake had spun the question made it pretty easy to answer, by her way of thinking.

"Hell, no," she said bluntly. "I'd die for someone I loved if I had to and apparently will, but going the other way, if someone I loved was in danger, bet your ass I'd find a way back if there was a way I could save her."

It was a typical Kennedy answer, which was to say far more confident than it was necessarily informed, and not really taking many subtle factors into consideration. Didn't mean she wasn't convinced she meant it, though.

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Three]

[carpe_demon]

"I don't doubt that one bit," Drake grinned.

Re: Class Discussion [L&R: Class Three]

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Kennedy leaned back in her chair, her chin jutting out stubbornly. "Yeah, you better not."